Forty selected teachers from schools around the Central Papua Conference (CPC) of Papua New Guinea spent their holiday week participating in a “Developing Special Character and an Adventist Worldview Workshop” at Mt Diamond Adventist Secondary School outside of Port Moresby.
The scope of the Adventist Worldview Curriculum Framework covers schooling years from preparatory up to grade 10 and subjects as prescribed in the PNG National Department of Education Curriculum.
The 32-hour workshop, facilitated by CPC associate education director Dorcas Kuma, was aimed at ensuring subjects taught in Adventist schools integrate the biblical principles or values that Adventists hold as distinctive.
The workshop was part of fulfilling the requirements of quality assurance under the Adventist Accreditation Association (AAA).
Ms Kuma emphasised that the AAA will provide accreditation to answer the question, “how Adventist is my Adventist school?” Of the eight AAA modules, the sixth pertains to the Adventist Worldview Curriculum Framework, which CPC is implementing on behalf of the schools in PNG.
“All truth is God’s truth,” Ms Kuma stressed, “and how much of that is integrated in the school’s framework is dependent on such things being covered during this week’s workshop. This includes religious education in non-Adventist schools covered in module four, in which local churches are to be involved through their local education leaders.”
The teachers were divided into specialist subject groups to produced subject booklets that incorporate Adventist values in their outlines. Ms Kuma expressed satisfaction in the detail and coverage of the standards-based curriculum framework. “God’s standard is always high,” she concluded, “and it is incumbent on us as educators to make sure it stays that way.”
